VISITORS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

London : Bettany Press, 1994. First edition. Studies of Elinor Mary Brent-Dyer (1894-1969) and her oeuvre, with essays on various aspects, a checklist, a price-guide, illustrations, etc. Post 8vo (20cm). viii,328pp. Illustrations. Original pictorial wrappers; very good.

£15

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CARTER, John (John Waynflete), 1905-1975 : VICTORIAN FICTION : AN EXHIBITION OF ORIGINAL EDITIONS AT 7 ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON ... ARRANGED BY JOHN CARTER WITH THE COLLABORATION OF MICHAEL SADLEIR.

[London] : Cambridge University Press for the National Book League, 1947. First edition : one of the copies issued in cloth, with the plates not included in the wrappers issue. A major exhibition catalogue, with a foreword by Sadleir and an introduction by Carter. Demy 8vo (22cm). (xiv),(50)pp. Sixteen plates. Original cloth; a hint of rubbing; endpapers slightly spotted, with a short repaired tear to rear free endpaper; but a very good and bright copy in the original dust-jacket – lightly worn and slightly tanned.

£20

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Aldershot : Ashgate, (1998). First edition. An illustrated decade-by-decade survey, with biographical notes and checklists of over 200 authors from the English-speaking world. A review copy, with the manuscript review notes of the late B. C. Bloomfield loosely inserted. Medium 8vo (25cm). (xii),228pp. Numerous illustrations. Original boards; just a hint of bruising, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket.

£25

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London & New York : Mansell Publishing, (1988). First edition. An extensive finding-list of over 5,500 booksellers’ catalogues of musical material, with subject and locational indices. With an introductory essay on the “Music Antiquarian” by Albi Rosenthal. Medium 8vo (25cm). (xxiv),372pp. Original cloth; very good indeed.

£25

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London : for the Bibliographical Society, 1949. A reprint of the original 1945 edition. A collection of essays, including F.S.Ferguson, English Books before 1640; F.C.Francis, The Bibliographical Society; a Sketch of the First Fifty Years; E.P.Goldschmidt, The Study of Early Bookbinding; W.W.Greg, Bibliography – A Retrospect; W.A.Jackson, America; Michael Sadleir, The Development During the Last Fifty Years of Bibliographical Study of Books of the Nineteenth Century; Victor Scholderer, Early Printed Books; Harold Williams, The Eighteenth Century; F.P.Wilson: Shakespeare and the 'New Bibliography', etc. With a list of the Society’s publications, 1892-1942. Demy 4to. (viii),(216)pp. Original holland-backed boards; top edge gilt; a few faint marks; slight rubbing to corners, but a very good copy. From the collection of the late B.C.Bloomfield, former President of the Bibliographical Society.

£30

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GOTTLIEB, Gerald, 1923-2009 : EARLY CHILDREN’S BOOKS AND THEIR ILLUSTRATION.

New York : Pierpont Morgan Library / Toronto : Oxford University Press, (1975). First edition. A lavishly produced exploration of 225 treasures from the Pierpont Morgan Library, with bibliographical notes and short discussions of each. With a preface by Charles Ryskamp and an interesting essay by the historian by J. H. Plumb on "The First Flourishing of Children’s Books". Royal 4to (31cm). [2],(xxx),(266),[ii]pp. Colour plates. Over 300 monochrome illustrations. Original cloth; very good in a just lightly rubbed dust-jacket.

£100

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GROLIER CLUB : BOOKS AND PRINTS, PAST AND FUTURE : PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE GROLIER CLUB CENTENNIAL CONVOCATION, 26-28 APRIL 1984.

New York : Grolier Club, 1984. First edition : limited to 1,000 copies. Papers by Robert Giroux (The Future of the Book), Frank Stella (An Artist’s View of Prints), G. Thomas Tanselle (The Evolving Role of Bibliography, 1884-1984), and others. Royal 8vo. (xii),146pp. Original cloth; a little bowed, but otherwise very good indeed.

£20

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London : A. & C. Black, 1895. First complete edition : originally published in three separate instalments 1894-1895. A weighty survey, with a lengthy introduction covering collecting, preservation, German book-plates, French book-plates, English book-plates and their ten basic styles, American book-plates, early references, eighteenth-century engravers and styles, nineteenth-century design, etc., followed by detailed chronological tables of known examples from 1516 to 1895. Post 4to (28cm). [viii],124,(226),[xx]pp. Numerous plates and illustrations. Original cloth gilt; lightly sunned; a few minor marks; a touch shaken, but a very good copy of a handsome production.

£125

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London : Oxford University Press, 1967. First edition in English. A handsome and wide-ranging survey, with individual chapters on nursery rhymes, fairy stories, Hans Christian Andersen, Heinrich Hoffman, Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, fantasy, the Little Prince, dreams and educational methods, Red Indians, education through pictures, photography, colour prints, comic strips, politics, Jean de Brunhoff, twentieth-century picture books, etc., with extensive bibliographies. Originally published in Zurich in 1959. Edited and translated from the extended second edition of 1963 by Brian Alderson. Medium 8vo (25cm). xviii,(298),[iv]pp. Plates, some coloured. Illustrations. Original boards; very good in a price-clipped but otherwise very good dust-jacket.

£25

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[JACKSON, Guy Atwood, 1878- ] : A PRIMER OF RARE BOOKS AND FIRST EDITIONS : TEN LECTURES BY THE BIBLIOPHILIST.

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LANG, Andrew, 1844-1912 : THE LIBRARY.

London : Macmillan & Co., 1881. First edition. Lang opens with an “Apology for the Book-Hunter” – with remarks on biblography, taste, bookstalls, catalogues, auctions, etc. – before moving on to libraries great and small, and the books of the collector – the care of books, the enemies of books, the book-ghoul, the iniquities of bookbinders, manuscripts, early printed books, first editions, fashions in book-collecting, etc. The final chapter (contributed by Austin Dobson) deals with English illustrated books of the previous hundred years. Crown 8vo (179 x 113mm). (xvi),184pp. Frontispiece by Walter Crane. Three coloured plates. Wood-engravings in text. Bound in an attractive later (mid twentieth-century) half olive morocco, banded and gilt, by George Bayntun of Bath; all edges gilt; marbled endleaves; a few tiny marks and spots, but overall a very good copy. Dated 1958 ownership inscription of David Fyfe Anderson (1904-1988), the Scottish obstetrician.

£125

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LOEWENSTEIN, F.E. (Fritz Erwin), 1901-1967 : [COVER TITLE] THE HISTORY OF A FAMOUS NOVEL.

London : Privately Printed, 1946. First edition : limited to 500 copies. A bibliographical monograph on the concept of rarity in collecting, combined with a case-study on the complex publishing history of George Bernard Shaw’s “An Unsocial Socialist” (1887). With a short, even curt, introductory note by Shaw on Loewenstein’s “abominable drudgery” in the field of Shaw biography and bibliography (Loewenstein was founder of the Shaw Society). Demy 8vo (22cm). (20)pp. Original wrappers; wrappers slightly dusty and nicked, but a good copy of a fragile production.

£20

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McLEAN, Ruari, 1917- – contributor : CATALOGUE OF EXHIBITIONS OF BRITISH COLOURED BOOKS 1738-1898 : INCLUDING A SELECTION FROM THE ROYAL LIBRARY AT WINDSOR GRACIOUSLY LOANED BY HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.

London : British Printing Machinery Association, 1980. First edition. The catalogue of the related 1980 exhibitions held at the National Exhibition Centre and elsewhere – describing 188 items in Birmingham, 95 in Aberystwyth, 49 in Cambridge, 100 in Manchester, etc. With an introductory essay by Ruari McLean. Royal 8vo. (140),[iv]pp. Colour plates. Original pictorial wraps; very good in dust-jacket.

£20

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MAGEE, David (David Bickersteth), 1905-1977 : INFINITE RICHES : THE ADVENTURES OF A RARE BOOK DEALER.

New York : Paul S. Eriksson, (1973). First edition. Memoirs in London and San Francisco of the distinguished English-born antiquarian bookseller, bibliographer, collector of P. G. Wodehouse, and president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. Demy 8vo (22cm). (xiv),274pp. Frontispiece. Original cloth; mild spotting of edges, but a very good copy in a lightly used and slightly creased dust-jacket. With the pencilled ownership inscription of another highly distinguished bookseller, Ben Weinreb (1912-1999).

SOLD

MANASEK, Francis J. : UNCOMMON VALUE : A RARE BOOK DEALER’S WORLD.

Ann Arbor : Arbor Libri Press, 1995. First edition. Recollections and reminiscences of the American book and map dealer F. J. Manasek (of G. B. Manasek of Vermont) – with chapters on what things are worth; dealers; the London bookshops; auctions; fairs, etc. Medium 8vo (24cm). [ii],146,[iv]pp. Original cloth; a very good copy indeed, in an equally very good dust-jacket.

£15

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London : B. T. Batsford, (1979). A reprint of the original 1954 edition, with a fresh preface updating the list of recommended reading, etc. An illustrated history and collectors’ guide to English children’s books, with checklists of the most important authors, the publishing history of the major works, etc. Crown 4to (26cm). (256)pp. Colour plates. 107 illustrations. Original boards; a few faint marks, but a very good copy in a just slightly dusty and price-clipped dust-jacket.

£25

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MUIR, Percy (Percy Horace), 1894-1979 : VICTORIAN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS.

New York : Praeger Publishers, (1971). First edition : the American issue. A well illustrated and wide-ranging survey of (mainly British) illustrated books of the nineteenth century – with chapters on chapbooks; Thomas Bewick and George Cruikshank; line engraving; the periodicals; the Dalziels; the advent of colour; fin-de-siècle; foreign influence; America, etc. Crown 4to. (xvi),(288)pp. Five colour plates. Numerous monochrome illustrations. Original orange cloth, blocked and lettered on spine in gilt; top edge black; a very good and bright copy in the dust-jacket.

£40

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London : Athlone Press, 1962. First edition. A study of the growth of collecting autograph letters between the early eighteenth century and about 1914. With chapters on the Early Collectors; William Upcott; Dawson Turner; Other Nineteenth Century Collections, etc. Demy 8vo. viii,(118),[ii]pp. Plates. Original cloth; mild spotting of edges, but a very good copy in a lightly sunned dust-jacket. With the pencilled ownership inscription of the late B. C. Bloomfield, former Director of Collection Development at the British Library.

£25

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Manchester : Manchester Polytechnic Library, in association with Bracken Books and Studio Editions, 1988. First edition. A descriptive catalogue of the 2649 items in this handsome collection. Arranged by themes – and with indices of authors, editors, translators, contributors, illustrators, engravers, local publishers, etc. Introduction by Peter Stockham. Demy 4to. [viii],(204)pp. Tipped-in colour frontispiece. Colour plates. Illustrations. Original boards; very good indeed in the dust-jacket.

£35

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TARG, William, 1907-1999 – editor : BIBLIOPHILE IN THE NURSERY : A BOOKMAN’S TREASURY OF COLLECTORS’ LORE ON OLD AND RARE CHILDREN’S BOOKS.

Cleveland & New York : World Publishing Co., (1957). First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed, signed and dated (1957) by Bill Targ. Essays by Richard Altick, Jacob Blanck, Marchette Chute, F. J. Harvey Darton, August Derleth, Iona and Peter Opie, Ellery Queen, Vincent Starrett, and other cognoscenti on various aspects of children’s books and their collecting – “with emphasis on the great rarities, classics, and highspots”. Medium 8vo (25cm). (508),[iv]pp. Plates. Facsimiles. Original cloth; very good in a sunned and lightly tanned, but otherwise good dust-jacket.

£40

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London : Library Association, (1975). A reprint (with minor corrections) of the 1971 third edition. A fine history of the production, distribution and accessibility of scientific literature – with chapters on scientific incunabula, scientific books before 1600, the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, the rise of scientific societies, scientific periodicals, scientific bibliographies and bibliographers, private libraries, science publishing, etc. With an extensive bibliography. Demy 8vo (23cm). (x),508,[ii]pp. Plates. Original cloth; a few very minor signs of age and use, but a very good copy.

£20

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WILSON, Robert A. (Robert Alfred), 1922-2016 : MODERN BOOK COLLECTING.

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1980. First edition. Inscribed (to the bibliographer Barry Bloomfield) and signed by the author, the New York bookseller, Robert A. Wilson. A clearly laid-out guide for the novice first edition collector – with chapters on what, how, who, dealers, auctions, condition, identification, bibliographies, housing, fakes, investment, disposing, definitions, etc. Demy 8vo (22cm). xiv,(272)pp. Illustrations. Original cloth; very good in the dust-jacket, also very good.

£20

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